Higher-performance imaging devices have been studied along with recent development of the digital imaging technology. What will be required in the imaging technology is to record images more finely.
Common digital still cameras and digital video cameras employ imaging devices such as CMOSs or CCDs to produce still image files and video files as projected from human's viewpoint. The image resolution of those devices will be improved in the future.
Meanwhile, collection of functional information from image files along with images has been studied with regard to the digital imaging technology. Examples of this technology include obtaining a parallax to a focused object by associating two images with each other to synthesize a 3D image from a twin-lens camera. Additionally, effective methods of reproducing a parallax have also been studied.
According to various studies made in the past, increase of the number of lenses for a camera, integration of videos of multiple cameras, or continuous imaging of videos of a monocular camera was performed during an image acquisition process. Then the acquired images were subjected to image processing so as to show better images to human.
Some examples of the digital imaging technology related to the above include the following references.
Patent Literature 1 discloses image processing technology of calculating a parallax from two imaging devices of the same kind that are spaced at a certain interval and fixed relative to each other.
Patent Literature 2 discloses image processing technology of synthesizing a plurality of intermediate images from images acquired by a plurality of imaging devices and calculating a synthesis image based on the stationarity included in the image group of the synthesized intermediate images to thereby generate a virtual image from an intermediate viewpoint of the imaging devices.
Patent Literature 3 discloses image processing technology of acquiring multiple images at different points of time with a monocular camera that projects an object and removing noises mixed in the multiple images by referring to images at another point of time.
Patent Literature 4 discloses image processing technology of acquiring multiple images with different exposures at different points of time with a monocular camera that projects an object, leveling the exposure of the images having different exposures for comparison, and generating a desired HDR image by referring to an image that better captures the object.
Patent Literature 5 discloses image processing technology of acquiring 360°-panorama images at different points of time with a monocular 360°-panorama camera that projects an object, performing image correction on the individual images, and performing a super-resolution process with reference to differences between the individual images to generate a higher-resolution image.
Patent Literature 6 discloses technology of calculating a parallax from a sub-camera unit including two imaging devices of the same kind that are spaced at a certain interval and fixed relative to each other, calculating a distance to the object to be taken based on the calculated parallax, and performing a focusing process of a main camera.
In this manner, those references disclose technology of imaging monocular or multocular images (data) and conducing image processing so as to conform to a desired image for various application. Those references also disclose changing imaging conditions with reference to information on a distance to an object that has been acquired from multiple images.